1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel non-reducing saccharide-forming enzyme, and its preparation and uses, more particularly, to a novel non-reducing saccharide-forming enzyme which forms a non-reducing saccharide having a trehalose structure when allowed to act on one or more reducing partial starch hydrolysates having a degree of glucose polymerization of 3 or higher, as well as to its preparation and microorganisms capable of producing said enzyme. The present invention further relates to a composition containing a non-reducing saccharide having a trehalose structure as an end unit which is preparable with said enzyme, a relatively-low reducing saccharide containing said non-reducing saccharide, and/or trehalose prepared from these saccharides.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Trehalose or .alpha.,.alpha.-trehalose has been long known as a non-reducing saccharide consisting of glucose units. As described in Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry, Vol.18, pp.201-225 (1963), published by Academic Press, USA, and Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol.56, pp.3,213-3,215 (1990), trehalose widely exists in microorganisms, mushrooms, insects, etc., though the content is relatively low. Since non-reducing saccharides including trehalose do not react with substances containing amino groups such as amino acids and proteins, they neither induce the amino-carbonyl reaction nor alter amino acid-containing substances. Thus, non-reducing saccharides can be used with amino acids without causing browning and deterioration. Because of this, there has been in great demand to establish a method for preparation of such a non-reducing saccharide.
In conventional preparations of trehalose, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.154,485/75, microorganisms are utilized, or as proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.216,695/83, maltose is converted into trehalose by using maltose- and trehalose-phosphorylases in combination. The former, however, is not suitable for industrial-scale preparation because the content of trehalose present in microorganisms as a starting material is usually lower than 15 w/w % (the wording "w/w %" will be abbreviated as "%" in the specification, if specified otherwise), on a dry solid basis (d.s.b.), and the extraction and purification steps are complicated. The latter has the following demerits: (i) Since trehalose is formed via glucose-1-phosphate, maltose as a substrate could not be used at a relatively-high concentration; (ii) Since the enzymatic reaction systems of the phosphorylases are reversible reactions, the yield of the objective trehalose is relatively low; and (iii) it is substantially difficult to mentain the reaction systems stably and to continue their enzymatic reactions smoothly. Thus, there has not yet been realized an industrial-scale preparation of trehalose.
As regards the preparation of trehalose, it is reported in the column titled "Oligosaccharides" in the chapter titled "Current Status of Starch Application Development and Related Problems" in "Food Chemicals", No.88, pp.67-72 (August, 1992) that "In spite of a wide applicability of trehalose, an enzymatic preparation thereof via a direct saccharide-transfer reaction or a hydrolytic reaction has been reported to be scientifically almost impossible in this field." Thus, an enzymatic preparation of trehalose by using starch as a material has been deemed to be scientifically very difficult.
It is known that partial starch hydrolysates, prepared from materials such as liquefied starch, cyclodextrins and maltooligosaccharides, usually have a reducing end-group as an end unit. These partial starch hydrolysates are referred to as "non-reducing partial starch hydrolysates" in the specification. The reducing power of such reducing partial starch hydrolysates is generally expressed by "Dextrose Equivalent (DE) value", based on their content of dry solid. It is known that among reducing partial starch hydrolysates those with a relatively-high DE value generally have a decreased molecular weight and viscosity and an increased sweetness and reactivity, and readily react with substances having amino groups such as amino acids and proteins to cause an undesirable browning, smell and deterioration of their quality.
These unfavorable properties of reducing partial starch hydrolysates are related to their DE values, and the relationship between reducing partial starch hydrolysates and their DE values is very important. It has been even believed to be impossible to interfere with the relationship in this field.
The only way to eliminate the relationship is by forming non-reducing saccharides from reducing partial starch hydrolysates by hydrogenating the hydrolysates at a relatively-high pressure of hydrogen to convert their reducing end-groups into hydroxyl groups. The method, however, requires a high-pressure autoclave and consumes large amounts of hydrogen and energy, and requires a relatively-high level of control or safety precautions to prevent disasters. The material reducing partial starch hydrolysates and the resultant products differ because the former consists of glucose units and the latter, i.e. sugar alcohols of the resultant partial starch hydrolysates, consists of glucose and sorbitol units which may cause symptoms such as digestive disorder and diarrhea when ingested. Thus, there has been a great demand for decreasing or even eliminating the reducing power of reducing partial starch hydrolysates without changing glucose units as a constituent saccharide thereof.